DAVID KOCH:
Joining us now Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Prime Minister good morning to you. A terrible day to be talking to you, any update from Foreign Affairs on whether any Australians were caught up in the attacks?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well thank you David. Let me first say that the Australian people absolutely condemn these cowardly terrorist attacks in Brussels. Our thoughts, our prayers and our most resolute solidarity are with the people of Belgium as they face these terrorist attacks. We are totally united in the fight against terrorism and the people of Belgium know that we stand with them just as our forebears stood with the people of Belgium 100 years ago. We are in a battle with these terrorists and we will defeat them. Now as far as Australians are concerned in Brussels this is a big international city and a mass casualty attack like this you could expect that there would likely be Australians involved. However at this point right now we are not aware of any Australians being involved in the attack. I’ve spoken to our Ambassador in Brussels this morning. He is - there are some reports of foreigners of other countries being injured but at this stage our Embassy is calling the hospitals where the injured have been taken and obviously in direct contact with the prosecutor's office and the police in Belgium to identify, to determine whether any Australians have been involved but so far thank God, no news of any Australians being affected.
NATALIE BARR:
So what advice do you have for all those Australians who are in Belgium today?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well what they should be, they should be aware of the security situation. We would, the travel advice has been upgraded or updated to advise Australians to reconsider their need to travel to Belgium at this time and Australians who are in Belgium should follow carefully the advice of the local authorities in terms of their safety. Now I might just say that if you are concerned about any family and friends in the region you should attempt to contact them directly. If you’re unable to contact them and you still hold concerns for their welfare you can call the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s 24-hour call centre on 1300 555 135 or if you’re calling from overseas, that’s Australia, 612 6261 3305, so that's where you can get updated information from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
DAVID KOCH:
Prime Minister will you consider changing our terror threat level because of what has happened in Europe overnight?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yes thank you Kochie, I’ve had a meeting this morning, a telephone hook-up this morning with the Acting Director General of Security, that’s the head of ASIO, the Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin, our Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Greg Moriarty, the Attorney-General and other officials. ASIO's advice at this stage is that the threat level should remain where it has been for the last 18 months which is at probable.
NATALIE BARR:
So do we need to update our security at airports Prime Minister? We’re hearing this morning that these are probably a bunch of people, not even being told what to do from the head of IS. They are in apartments all around the place and operating on their own.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well just dealing with airports first. I discussed this very matter naturally with the officials this morning. We have very strong security presence at Australian airports as you know. And the Australian Federal Police while it will review the learnings from the Brussels incident, the Brussels attack, is satisfied that our security levels and techniques at the airports are appropriate but we are constantly learning from this and there’ll be a meeting today for example that I've asked our Coordinator of Counter-Terrorism to convene with the relevant agencies to pull together information from Brussels and review all of our procedures in the light of that. Every single incident, wherever it occurs in the world, is carefully analysed and we learn from those so that we are better able to protect Australians.
DAVID KOCH:
Our border protection services are taking industrial action over the weekend. Are you calling on that union to work as normal and to call off that industrial action?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we always, David, we always call on the unions that are operating…
DAVID KOCH:
But particularly now, this weekend?
PRIME MINISTER:
Yeah indeed, indeed. We strongly encourage them to rethink their call for industrial action and stay at work and pursue their complaints their disagreements with the Government through other means but assuming the union is not minded to change its industrial strategy, I have discussed this very issue with the AFP and as you know the Australian Federal Police are not part of this industrial action. The Australian Federal Police presence at airports and they are of course the primary provider of security in the face of threats like this, the AFP presence will be unaffected by this strike or this industrial action.
DAVID KOCH:
So could AFP presence be increased to cover for any lack of staff from border protection over the weekend? Or would you consider supplementing border protection staff with the military?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well can I just say in terms of the AFP, I’ll be meeting with the, having another discussion with the heads of the agencies later today. We stay very close to these situations as they develop because we will know a lot more from Brussels by later on in the day and I’ve been given an assurance by the AFP Commissioner that security will be consistent and sustained and consistent with what it always is at the airports. So we will - but we’ll review that in the light of any more that we learn from Brussels or the evolving situation.
NATALIE BARR:
When you think about our security and you say it's good, I’m assuming Brussels was too? You know they’ve got known terrorists in that country. They’ve been hunting the people who attacked Paris. So isn't this the time to actually increase our security and not say "ours is good"?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well ours is good. Australians should be assured of that but we always look to improve it. Let me just make a couple of points about Belgium. The Belgians as you know have had a very real problem with the extremist activities in their country and activities of which they have not been aware. Europe has, for all intents and purposes, no internal borders. So people can travel within Europe as they wish and their external borders have been very porous as we’ve been seeing every night on the news. So Europe has a security challenge or a security problem that is different to Australia. We have strong border protection. We’re assisted by our geography of course but we also have very strong border protection that our Government has maintained and that is whether it relates to people smugglers coming by boat or whether its people seeking to come to Australia on, you know, via airports on aeroplanes. So we do have much stronger security. We also have very keen focus on intelligence. We seek to pre-empt and disrupt terrorist attacks. In recent times we have disrupted six terrorist operations or would-be operations and you see regularly reports of arrests which are part of that process, so we cannot and I stress this, people should always be alert. They should be very aware of their environment and obviously take advice from the police and other security services about security but we are in a much stronger position in terms of our domestic security than the European countries are and that is a consequence of consistent government focus on keeping Australians safe. That is my job, my principal job as your Prime Minister is to ensure that Australians are safe. It’s a dangerous world, we understand that and we can't guarantee that there will not be a terrorist incident in Australia that's why the threat level is set at probable but we are able, we are in a much stronger position than our friends in Europe are.
DAVID KOCH:
That's really good to hear.
PRIME MINISTER:
It's a sad state of affairs in Europe. They’ve allowed their security measures to slip and this is a lesson for all of us, to absolutely keep your guard up at all times.
DAVID KOCH:
That is great to hear, you sit on the National Security Committee of course, which I can't imagine, you get all the news that we never, never hear about. I reckon that would be a horrific committee to sit on. But you’re saying we foiled six potential terrorist attacks in recent times?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I’m saying there have been six successful disruptions. This is a figure that we’ve used publically before. We don't normally, we don’t disclose too much about what we do but I just want to - this is a figure that the Attorney General and the officials and I discussed this morning. It's a figure that’s been quoted before and it indicates the level of activity. I mean a key to all of this, is awareness and intelligence and I think what clearly has happened in parts of Europe is there’s been a real breakdown in intelligence and of course the problem is if you don't, if you can't control your borders, you don't know who’s coming and going. The people can move from Germany to France to Belgium, right through Europe freely, so Europe is for all intentions one country in that respect but of course it's very easy to get in and this is what’s, this is what is, you can see this crisis in Europe. I mean we have a tough border protection policy, we make no apologies for that but you can see why it is so important in a dangerous world, dangerous environment, it's very important that we have a strong security system, both with protection within Australia and secure borders and we have both.
DAVID KOCH:
Good to know. Prime Minister thanks very much for joining us, appreciate it.
PRIME MINISTER:
Thank you very much.
Ends